Lewd Conduct

Actor Fred Willard was arrested Wednesday night on suspicion of engaging in a lewd act at an adult theater in Hollywood. Vice officers who were part of a prostitution-enforcement detail spotted the 72-year-old actor "engaged in a lewd act" at the Tiki Theater on Santa Monica Boulevard, Sgt. Chuck Slater of the Los Angeles Police Department told L.A. Now . Though Slater did not elaborate on the alleged misdemeanor, law enforcement sources told...

The litigation over sexual misconduct at Miramonte Elementary has resulted in a struggle over which documents should be part of the public record. This includes testimony that a former teacher had alerted her principal about sexual misconduct by Mark Berndt, who was subsequently arrested and later convicted of lewd conduct. The Los Angeles Unified School District has sought broad confidentiality over documents related to the trial, including some depositions from key witnesses and records from the law-enforcement investigation.

A Board of Rights panel, in a session that lasted past midnight, found a Los Angeles police sergeant guilty today on three counts of lewd conduct with male prostitutes and recommended the department's harshest penalty short of firing. The three-member hearing board recommended that Sgt. Emmanuel Valencia, 37, be suspended without pay for six months for engaging in lewd conduct with a male prostitute on two occasions, Lt. Larry Goebel said.

SAN DIEGO -- A former commanding officer of the famed Blue Angels aerial demonstration team was relieved of duty amid allegations of "lewd speech, inappropriate comments, and sexually explicit humor" and pornography, the Navy said Wednesday. Last week the Navy announced that Capt. Gregory McWherter had been relieved of duty as executive officer of Naval Base Coronado because of initial findings of an investigation into misconduct during his tours as commander and flight leader of the Blue Angels.

An Irvine tennis instructor who lined up potential pupils over the Internet has been arrested on suspicion of lewd conduct with a 13-year-old student, police said Friday. Jarrid Thomas Baldogo was arrested late Thursday at his residence in the Westpark community after Irvine police detectives obtained a search warrant. The 29-year-old tennis instructor has worked as a tennis instructor for several years and allegedly had access to children, though police said there is no immediate information that indicates there are additional victims.

A 39-year-old Thousands Oaks man faces charges of lewd conduct and peeping in the women's locker room at California Lutheran University, authorities said Thursday. The Ventura County Sheriff's Department has filed its case against David Tenebaum with prosecutors, who will be asked to issue an arrest warrant if the man fails to answer a court summons for the misdemeanor charges, Det. Marty Luna said. The case comes after Tenebaum allegedly gave incriminating statements to Ventura County sheriff's detectives following a three-month investigation that started after Thousands Oaks police received two calls -- one in May, the other in June -- regarding a man seen entering the women's locker room at the Gilbert Sports Arena.

Police cited San Diego Chargers center Courtney Hall for engaging in lewd conduct in public and soliciting a prostitute last Sunday evening, authorities said. Patrol officers spotted Hall, 23, with Anthony Thompson, 26, on the 4000 block of Boundary Street in North Park shortly after 9 p.m., just hours after the Chargers' 20-9 loss at Seattle. Police spokesman Bill Robinson said that Thompson was dressed in women's clothing. Hall, who was released at the scene, faces a court hearing Dec.

Misdemeanor charges of indecent exposure and lewd conduct were lodged against Edwin A. Jones, 54, chairman of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors and former Thousand Oaks mayor, who was subdued by tear gas and arrested last week in Studio City after allegedly exposing himself to a young woman. Police said Jones was at a motel on Ventura Boulevard with a 38-year-old Agoura woman when another motel guest, a 22-year-old mother of two, walked through the courtyard.

An elementary school teacher pleaded innocent Wednesday to felony charges of lewd conduct involving children. Edward Portillo, 56, a teacher at the Bella Vista elementary school in Monterey Park, was arrested Jan. 27. Portillo, who is accused of lewd conduct with four children under age 14, remains in jail in lieu of $400,000 bail.

The former principal of an Orange high school was convicted Thursday of masturbating in a public park. Brent Bailey, 56, resigned this year as head of El Modena High School after being arrested in December by a plainclothes police officer in a restroom at Fullerton's Brea Dam Trails park. He pleaded guilty at a Fullerton court Thursday to engaging in lewd conduct, a misdemeanor, and was sentenced to three years' probation.

L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy said Friday that he was relieved that the criminal case against an ex-Miramonte Elementary teacher accused of lewd acts against students was over and sharply criticized teachers unions for blocking attempts to streamline the dismissal of those suspected of misconduct. Former teacher Mark Berndt was charged in 2012 with committing lewd acts against nearly two dozen children at Miramonte Elementary School, including feeding them cookies tainted with semen.

Mark Berndt, the teacher who committed lewd acts against nearly two dozen Los Angeles schoolchildren, was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison after facing the parents of his victims, many of whom berated him for stealing the innocence of their children. Berndt, who taught at Miramonte Elementary School for three decades, pleaded no contest to 23 counts of lewd conduct. The allegations against him included spoon-feeding semen to blindfolded children as part of what he purportedly called a "tasting game.

Former Miramonte teacher Mark Bendt was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday after pleading no contest to 23 counts of lewd conduct with young students at his school. Berndt was arrested in January 2012 after a South Bay drugstore photo technician alerted authorities to images of children blindfolded, some with tape over their mouths, on film Berndt left at the store for processing. He received the 25-year prison sentence in exchange for the no contest plea. The parents of several of Berndt's victims were to speak before the judge Friday morning.

The teacher charged with committing lewd acts against nearly two dozen children at Miramonte Elementary School, including feeding them cookies tainted with semen, has agreed to plead no contest, sources said Thursday. Mark Berndt has agreed to a sentence of 25 years in prison, multiple sources told The Times. Berndt, 62, is scheduled to enter the no contest plea Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court and to withdraw his not guilty plea in connection with the more than yearlong L.A. County sheriff's investigation into his conduct at the school.

A 57-year-old Stanton man was convicted this week of sex crimes with a 14-year-old boy he met on Craigslist. Mark Aime Brosseau was found guilty Wednesday of one felony count of lewd acts upon a child, meeting a child with the intent to engage in lewd conduct and contacting a child with the intent to commit lewd acts, according to the Orange County district attorney's office. Brosseau met the teenager on Craigslist in June 2010, officials said. A couple of months later, he parked his pickup truck in the parking structure of a mall in Huntington Beach "and engaged in sexual conduct" with the boy in the vehicle, prosecutors said.

A 39-year-old Thousands Oaks man faces charges of lewd conduct and peeping in the women's locker room at California Lutheran University, authorities said Thursday. The Ventura County Sheriff's Department has filed its case against David Tenebaum with prosecutors, who will be asked to issue an arrest warrant if the man fails to answer a court summons for the misdemeanor charges, Det. Marty Luna said. The case comes after Tenebaum allegedly gave incriminating statements to Ventura County sheriff's detectives following a three-month investigation that started after Thousands Oaks police received two calls -- one in May, the other in June -- regarding a man seen entering the women's locker room at the Gilbert Sports Arena.

A former Simi Valley elementary school teacher has admitted to having a sexual relationship with a male student, authorities said. Malia Brooks, who worked as a sixth-grade teacher at Garden Grove Elementary, pleaded guilty to three counts of lewd conduct on a child with sentencing enhancements for substantial sexual conduct- - an enhancement that speaks to the severity of the acts, prosecutors said. The victim was under 14 years old, according to the initial charges filed against the teacher.

The Los Angeles Unified School District on Wednesday offered to pay about $17 million to settle 40 legal claims involving a former Miramonte Elementary School teacher accused of committing lewd acts on children - but attorneys for the students say they plan to refuse the offers and take the claims to trial. The settlement offers, which expire in 30 days, would pay each of the alleged victims of former teacher Mark Berndt about $425,000, plaintiffs' lawyers said. All of those offered the settlements are represented by attorneys Luis Carrillo and Brian Claypool.